


Anything To Forget

by h8tedhannah



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Demetri is kinda scared of heights, Falling in Love (literally), Fluff and Angst, Hawk is lowkey a sadist, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:47:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28640970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h8tedhannah/pseuds/h8tedhannah
Summary: Then he started walking. Slowly he put one foot in front of the other on the edge and balanced his hands on either side of him. He looked like a bird, Demetri thought, a true hawk, beautiful with flying wings, his red ponytail flowing in the wind. For just a second Demetri forgot about the fact that he could be dead in seconds, and instead focused on the beauty of what was Eli Moskowitz.
Relationships: Demetri & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Demetri/Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, Inspired by Zach Dempsey/Alex Standall
Comments: 7
Kudos: 98





	Anything To Forget

**Author's Note:**

> Basically the zach and alex kissing scene from 13 reasons why but make it two gay karate nerds. 
> 
> Slight TW!!: If you have serve anxiety and/or fear of heights and tall buildings, reader discretion is advised!!

When Demetri suggested that he and Eli participate in some ‘Binary Brothers’ bonding activities in honor of Miyagi winning the All Valley, this is not what he had in mind. 

“You’re crazy! You’re seriously crazy!” Demetri exclaims, his arms flailing in the wind. 

They’re currently standing on the rooftop of the second highest building in their neighborhood, looking straight down at the cars and people below. 

“You’re the one who proposed the whole, ‘let’s fix our friendship by doing fun stuff together again!’ Eli replies, yelling into the wind. His mohawk isn’t styled today, and the red ends of his hair are making a swirl around his head. “Yeah, I meant like, watching Star Wars and playing Legend of Zelda! Not edge walking on an insurance building! This about what— 70 feet above the ground, based on the wind speeds we have a 55% higher chance of falling off- and plus— if we fall we will probably die!” Hawk laughs, kicking Demetri softly in the shin. “Then we shall die together.” He says, tugging on his sleeve. 

“I’ve done this before Dem, trust me, your statics of falling off are way lower than you think.” Eli says, tying his hair into a loose ponytail as he prepares to jump over the metal railing. Demetri just stands there; wide eyed and in shock, one; at the fact that Eli has done this more than once and didn’t die; and two, that Eli looks undeniable good looking as he effortlessly ties his hair back. He’s never seen Elis hair in this lighting before, with nothing but the moon and stars to illuminate it; and maybe Eli catches him staring too long because he quirks a brow in question. 

Demetri wants to say, “do you want it to be your fault I end up with a broken arm again, or worse? Or, Did you even learn anything from Miguel falling down a railing first?” But he doesn’t. He can just tell, tell, that Eli knows exactly what he’s thinking. It’s always been like that though, they can read eachothers thoughts like a book. 

“Fine. You don’t have to if you don’t want.” He says, letting go of Demetris sleeve. His expression changes to the same the regret and sorrow that he’s seen on his face more than he’d like these past few months. 

“I— I really don’t want you to get hurt, so just watch? Okay?” He says, lips forming a thin line. “And you won’t call me a pussy for it?” Demetri shoots back. Hawk shakes his head, bumping him on the shoulder. “Not for this no, but I will call you a pussy for not raiding that magical village and attaining the secret gem last night.” He replies, having to talk a little louder as the wind picks up. Demetri rolls his eyes. “I don’t even understand, why do you want to put your life in danger anyways?” Demetri asks, staring down the railing at the city below. 

“It helps me let go. To forget.” Hawk says, sitting the railing, his lang’s dangling over the edge. Demetri sees that same face again, the one with sorrow and regret laced all over. A part of him feels guilty, because he knows that the sorrow Hawk feels is because of him, but he ignores the twist in his heart. “Eli— you know.” Then there’s a finger being pushed to his lips. Maybe it’s just the reflection of the moon, but for a minute Demetri swears his eyes are on the brink of tears. “I just— wanted to do— one last time. Let me. Please?” 

Demetri can’t really say no to that. So he doesn’t. Why, God, we’re Eli Moskowitz puppy dog eyes the demise of Demetri. 

Eli sighs, his foot stepping over the brick on the other side of the railing. He takes his hands out of his pockets and it isn’t until he steps on the edge of the building that Demetri realizes how sweaty his own hands are. He wants to cry, he wants to push Eli back to the safety of the railing, and his heart is beating so hard he thought he might have a heart attack; yet Eli looks back at him as he raises his other foot with a face of peace and reassurance. 

“Chill dude.” He says, in the most nonchalant and cool way, as if beneath the building there was nothing but Elis waterbed, protecting his skull and bones from the hundred foot drop. But there wasn’t. And that terrified the living hell out of Demetri. 

Then he started walking. Slowly he put one foot in front of the other on the railing and balanced his hands on either side of him. He looked like a bird, Demetri thought, a true hawk, beautiful with flying wings, his red ponytail flowing in the wind. For just a second Demetri forgot about the fact that he could be dead in seconds, and instead focused on the beauty of what was Eli Moskowitz. 

“You know Hawks can’t actually fly right?” He said, completely by accident, and he panicked as he realized his blurting out and distractions could end up being the end of his best friends life. He didn’t expect for Eli to answer, but his stomach did a flip flop when he saw his face. 

Eli looked calm. Completely happy and at peace, he didn’t even look down at his feet, just walked along like it was just another everyday school hallway. He laughed and replied, “You never know, Miles Morales didn’t know he had spider-man powers until he almost died in General Zods hands.” Demetri rolled his eyes and inched closer to the railing, getting his arms ready for the worst case scenario. There was nothing but Demetris nervous foot tapping as Eli took 3 more steps across the edge, only taking him about a fourth of the way against the building. The wind had slowed, and no cars were down on the street, and in the silence, when Eli finally spoke, his voice cracked like he was on the brink of tears. 

“There’s so much shit; in life, that I can’t change anymore.” He says. “Sometimes, I just look back at it all and want to die, to go crawl in a hole and never come back again. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and see the bad side of Hawk, the angry side, and I want to punch him, to— to destroy him— but I cant.” Demetri watches as a single tear drops over the edge, falling down down down by gravity’s name. 

“When I loose control like that, and just stay so— so stuck in the past—it’s scary.” He finishes, taking another two careful steps along the brick edge. “You have to let go of it— the shit, the shit you can’t control.” Demetri replies, following Hawk on the safe side of the building. “When you— when you— hurt me,” Demetris voice begins to crack. “It hurt me more mentally that physically, but nothing— nothing made me happier than letting go of that and fighting by your side again.” 

Eli smiles, his head still turned towards the sky. The breeze had completely stopped now, to Demetris relief. “You asked me why I came here multiple times before.” He says, Demetri nods in response. “I came here—To forget At first, it was to forget about,” he pauses. “about you.” Demetris eyes widen slighty. Even though he knows Eli doesn’t hate him anymore, it still hurts like a punch to the stomach. “But then... then I realized after the Golf N Stuff day, that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. I think it’s because deep down—Eli, not Hawk, never wanted me to forget someone who meant— who meant so much to me.” He takes another step, and Demetri doesn’t realize it, but he’s inching even closer to the edge now. “So instead when I came up here— and kept coming— it was not to forget about you— it was to forget about me. And what i’ve done, and what Cobra Kai did to me.”

“Because when you’re up here,” He spreads his arms further out, and flaps them like a Hawk flying through the air. “You only focus on the future. On how your feet are focusing on how to survive another second, how your body and brain can only think about what’s to come. The fear, the adrenaline, it makes you to live here, now, in the moment , not live in your coward, past, dumb self. Up here I don’t see Hawk, Eli, Cobra Kai; I just see— life itself and the human will to live.” 

You’re a sadist. Demetri wants to say, but instead a part of him is motivated by Hawks speech. He didn’t know about the nights alone Eli might have spent here, nights where maybe Eli could have died and Demetri would have never known he died having regrets, nights Eli could have been alone here, crying as he walked the edge of the building like he did right now, while Demetri was tucked away in his own bed reading Doctor Who. Nights where, which Demetri doesn’t want to think about, Eli might have thought about stepping completely over that edge. He just knows the fact that Eli was fighting. Eli was fighting inside of Hawk, desperately trying to claw himself out for nights and nights upon end, and it was all because of Demetris influence, of Eli, deep down in the bowels of Hawk, refusing to let his childhood friend and first true love go. 

He doesn’t know it’s even happening, or why his body moves on its own and is captivated in the same calm nonchalant mood Demetri was so shocked to see Eli in   
just a few minutes ago. But the next time he looks over to his left, and steps onto the brick edge, he understands exactly why Hawk loves this feeling.

He takes one step, his hands desperately moving to balance himself, and another. The view from here made Demetri feel like he and Eli were on top of the world, two birds flying through the air, away from the teenagers getting drunk below, away from the sex infested brains and karate dojo wars, and Demetri swears it’s the closest thing to heaven he’s ever felt. Eli was right, right now, he can’t feel the pain of his once broken arm, or the pain of seeing Hawk and Moon together, or the pain of being bullied by Kyler, all of it was gone. All was replaced with the spike of adrenaline and the will to live to walk another foot across the edge of the world. 

Hawk is a great distance away, already nearing the edge of building. He was a pro at balancing at this point, something everyone at Miyagi-do had realized with shock after the pond exercises, but no one ever knew this was the reason why. Balancing over a shallow pond of water on a peice of wood was much easier than the edge of a 10 story building, he supposes. 

But the hardest thing he’s ever had to balance was himself. Good or bad, Eli or Hawk, Kreese or Lawernce, his new self or his true self. But as he takes the final step on the edge, preparing to step back to the safety of the real world; he realized he’s balanced out pretty well over the past few months. Of course , minus his unrequited and complicated feelings for his oh so talkative and forgiving best friend; but he’d think about that later. Now, with him on the other side waiting for him, Hawk surely didn’t want to ruin the thing he just got back. 

He steps off the edge, with a final look down to the world below, he turns, hopeful to see the shocked face of his world, Demetri; and tell him “I told you I’d be fine.” 

But Demetri isn’t there. 

Instead his heart almost pops out of his chest when he realizes Demetri is on the edge, walking it and flailing his arms to balance on it just like Hawk was. He shouldn’t be doing this, I told him not to, Eli thinks. He hasn’t had the same practice as Eli, and now he’s really starting to feel the same uneasiness that Demetri must have felt, seeing him walk along that same edge. “I understand now, Eli!” Demetri yells into the wind, which has started to pick up again, and Hawk doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry. He just stands there, eyes bulging, at the fact that Demetri, who can’t even stand the heights of the county fairs ferris wheel, is walking on the edge of a 10 story building. “You made it sound so cool, so, guess my mom was right!” He imtimates his mothers voice. “If your friends jump off a cliff, would you do it too?—Well look at me Mom, risking my life with good ol’ Eli on a Thursday night!” And Eli laughs, he laughs hard until his eyes get wet, his eyes focused on his best friend. His dark hair sways in the wind, just like his flannel does, and for a moment Eli just wants to swoop him off the edge of the roof and kiss him. 

Wait what? 

And then, Eli looses focus, and everything goes to shit. 

The wind picks up, and Demetris arm struggle in it, as one of his feet go down, Demetris heart drops; his feet twist underneath him, and he feels his body weight shifting closer and closer to the edge. 

Fuck, I’m going to die, he thinks. His feet trip over the edge of the bricks as he tries to desperately claw his way through the air to reach for nothingness, but he already knows it’s over. Demetri is going to fall, break all of his bones, and die. He feels his life flashing as his heat races, and he can’t even think about anything in that second, nothing but a red mohawk and a nonchalant smile. 

But then, he feels his weight sink back into something. And he’s being pulled forcibly away from the edge. He watches in utter horror, but relief as the edge sinks away from him, and he realizes just how close he was to actually dying. He can’t move, speak, or even breathe, as Hawk pushes his body back against the bricks, pushing and breaking the weak railing. When the world stops spinning, all Demetri can hear is the ringing of near death in his ears and Elis nervous pants from above him. 

He stares back at Hawks worried face, who has him pinned to the ground, his arms still wrapped tightly around his waist, strong arms that prevented Demetris near death. He’s shaking, and seems far from letting go. 

And for whatever reason, Demetri laughs.   
Hawk releases his hold on his waist slightly, still keeping him pinned below, and furrows a brow in confusion. 

Hawk wants to slap him.   
He walked the edge, after he said not to, and almost DIED, and yet he was... laughing? 

“You were right. I did forget about the good ol dojo wars back there.” Demetri says through laughs, tightening his arm on Elis sleeve, just so that Eli knows not to move from this position just yet. Elis still traumatized as all hell, and doesn’t move a muscle. “But you know what I realized, Eli?”

Elis breathing stills and he drops his head slightly. He’s calming. He still doesn’t move from the pinning position, but he isn’t as anxious either. Their faces are only inches apart and Elis trying not to blush at the contact of their hands and legs, but he sees Demetris blush in the moonlight on his cheeks, his small, and almost unnoticeable freckles twinkling like the stars, and he can’t help but embrace the heat on his cheeks. 

“What, Demetri?” He whispers, voice quivering with something unrecognizable. “That I wanted to— I wanted to—.” Demetri begins to answer, but the blush on his cheeks and the twinkle in his eyes and the way he talks and moves and everything he does, Eli seems to know. He can feel their hearts beating through eachothers chest, their hands tightening around eachother, and Eli just knows. He’s known it for a while now he thinks, but now is just the moment where it all makes sense. Everything he’s ever wanted, ever needed. 

“I love you too.” He blurts out suddenly, almost yelling it, and Demetri stops talking, his eyes widen as tears from Hawks eyes drip down to his neck. His heart skips a beat, more than it did when he almost died a few minutes ago, and he grabs Elis hoodie, pushing his head down from the back of the neck, meeting their lips for a kiss. 

And they just melt into it, like nothing else mattered, like there was no such thing as Coba Kai, like there was no such thing as anything, but the love that these two boys have, or frankly have always had, for eachother. Elis lips slip over Demetris and back and forth, the heat between them, everything between them, creating an electricity unexplainable by any of Demetris physics textbooks. And he loves it, but of them do; and both of them realize they don’t ever need to risk their lives by walking across a buildings edge, because this kiss, the love in kiss; is enough to melt the most painful memories away.

**Author's Note:**

> not gonna lie zalex was the first thing i ever shipped so i kinda cried writing this.


End file.
